In “Educational Impostors and Fake Degrees,” Atwell & Domina (2011) described a social phenomenon of false claims made by individuals about their educational credentials. There are issues of costs and authentication of college degrees, whereas digital badges provide metadata on and evidence of one’s learning.

Regardless of where you start, it’s more than likely you’ll end up somewhere other than your intended destination. That’s okay. Systems are living things, and your badge system needs to be flexible. You must embrace a bit of chaos in its design.
-Carla Casilli, Director of Design + Practice at the Badge Alliance